Feast to famine: Sympatric predators respond differently to seasonal prey scarcity on the low Arctic tundra

Abstract

Resource fluctuation is a major driver of animal movement, influencing strategic choices such as residency vs nomadism, or social dynamics. The Arctic tundra is characterized by strong seasonality: Resources are abundant during the short summers but scarce in winters. Therefore, expansion of boreal-forest species onto the tundra raises questions on how they cope with winter-resource scarcity. We examined a recent incursion by red foxes (Vulpes vulpes) onto the coastal tundra of northern Manitoba, an area historically occupied by Arctic foxes (Vulpes lagopus) that lacks access to anthropogenic foods, and compared seasonal shifts in space use of the two species. We used 4 years of telemetry data following 8 red foxes and 11 Arctic foxes to test the hypothesis that the movement tactics of both species are primarily driven by temporal variability of resources. We also predicted that the harsh tundra conditions in winter would drive red foxes to disperse more often and maintain larger home ranges year-round than Arctic foxes, which are adapted to this environment. Dispersal was the most frequent winter movement tactic in both fox species, despite its association with high mortality (winter mortality was 9.4 times higher in dispersers than residents). Red foxes consistently dispersed toward the boreal forest, whereas Arctic foxes primarily used sea ice to disperse. Home range size of red and Arctic foxes did not differ in summer, but resident red foxes substantially increased their home range size in winter, whereas home range size of resident Arctic foxes did not change seasonally. As climate changes, abiotic constraints on some species may relax, but associated declines in prey communities may lead to local extirpation of many predators, notably by favoring dispersal during resource scarcity.

Keywords: climate change; movement ecology; range expansion; resource fluctuation; seasonality; telemetry.

FIGURE 1

Map of our study area in northern Manitoba, Canada.

FIGURE 2

Dispersal tracks of red (solid lines) and Arctic (dashed lines) foxes captured in northeastern Manitoba, Canada, from 2017–2019.

FIGURE 3

Size of (a) home ranges and (b) core areas of Arctic (gray) and red (black) foxes in northern Manitoba, Canada, in summer (n_red = 12, n_Arctic = 12) and winter (n_red = 7, n_Arctic = 5).